"I just wanted to chip it out in the middle of the fairway, and as soon as I hit it, it obviously just hit the bank in front of me and came back in the water," McIlroy said. "Probably a bit of bad judgment because I thought I could just chip it back out. But if I had examined the line a little bit closer, I might have just taken a drop straight away."

McIlroy added the St. Jude Classic to his schedule, giving him four straight tournaments. That doesn't mean he's playing many rounds. McIlroy said at the start of the week that these two-day work weeks aren't helping him.

"I don't feel like the scores are actually reflecting how I'm hitting the ball," he said. "I was able to string nine good holes together yesterday. I just need to keep working on it and try and string 18 good holes together, and then try and string two days together, and obviously three days and ultimately four. But I hit some good shots out there. I'm definitely hitting the ball better than I did last week, so I can see an improvement there. But I've still got a long way to go."